Immotion partners with casino operator Rank Group

It is also opening five additional ImmotionVR Experience Centres in the UK, bringing the total venues to 12 in its home country.

2018-11-12

United Kingdom

Reading time 1:30 min

The deal with The Rank Group will see a trial of the new VR Racing Challenge car racing simulator, the first of which is opening at the Grosvenor Casino in Manchester early in December.

This follows Immotion securing a number of ImmotionVR Experience locations and entering into new revenue-sharing partnerships.

In the UK, the Immotion Group has a new concession partnership with The Rank Group, Intergame Online reports. It is also opening five additional ImmotionVR Experience Centres in the UK, bringing the total venues to 12 in its home country. In the US, the first ImmotionVR Experience Centre test site has opened in Los Angeles.

The group reported strong trading in its UK locations, including its operational entertainment concessions. Also further VR content has been released to maintain the strong footfall experienced. The group said that 50 per cent of revenue at its Bristol (England) location came from pre-booked customers, many of whom are returning.

Martin Higginson, CEO, said: "Our VR revenues have grown rapidly since listing following the consistent roll out of our owned and operated ImmotionVR Experience Centres and our entry into numerous concession partnerships. We are very pleased with the reception our experiences are receiving from consumers and while VR still has a long way to go, it is clearly here to stay given the five-star Trip Advisor ratings across the majority of our sites, alongside increasing numbers of returning customers. We have a first mover advantage and each week we learn, helping us refine our offering for the future. "Our relationships with shopping mall owners continue to get stronger, especially with Intu, who are now our largest retail partner. The new concession initiative with The Rank Group is a major milestones for the company and I am confident that following successful trials, we will have a clear runway for future site roll-out.”

The company is looking forward to the impact of its new experience, Elf Power Inc, over Christmas in all 12 UK locations that is now opening. The new UK locations are in Glasgow (Scotland), Newcastle, London, Swindon and Birmingham (all England). New concessions opening will be at the Legoland Discover Centre in Boston, US, another Legoland location in Manchester, UK, a Genting Resorts World venue in Birmingham and one at the W5 Museum in Belfast, Northern Ireland.